Inactive Participation Research Articles

THE IMPACT OF INTERNAL CONTROL SYSTEM ON THE FINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY OF NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATIONS IN NIGERIA: EVIDENCE FROM THE STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELLING

This study examines the impact of internal control system on financial accountability of NGOs in Nigeria. Data was collected from primary source through the administration of three hundred and fifty-two (352) questionnaires distributed to the respondents that were selected through multi-stage sampling techniques of forty-four different NGOs in North-Western Nigeria. Data retrieved from the survey were analysed using multiple regressions analysis and the PLS in bound Structural Equation Modelling technique. The findings of the study revealed how internal control system is found to be having the significant potencies of enhancing or derailing the quality of services rendered by the NGOs and has the combined effects of predicting proper accountability in NGOs, taking all factors constant. In addition to the foregoing, the study discovered how a 1% decrease in risk assessment results to 0.155 increases in proper accountability in NGOs and vice versa. Failure of government to provide NGO regulatory laws and agencies or boards as well as the inactive participation of government in generating counterpart funding, poor attitude towards strengthening and sustainability of services often times result to poor service delivery to the targeted beneficiaries. As a result of these findings, it is recommended that government should support NGO intervention actively through the provision of counterpart funding, making policies that will be impactful in strengthening the activities of NGOs. The study also discovered that NGOs need to prioritize employees’ welfare and development as they are the agents of change. Additionally, donors and funding agencies should strengthen their evaluation processes more through periodic audit and on spot assessment in a bid to strengthen financial performance reporting.

Implementation of safety management system in managing construction projects: Benefits and obstacles

The safety management system (SMS) was introduced in the 1980s to reduce the risk of injuries and fatalities and minimise material waste in the construction industry. Further, construction companies have spent immeasurable resources on executing SMSs in the past 30 years. In this study, current industry practices were was reviewed to identify the benefits and obstacles of implementing SMS. Further, a questionnaire was conducted to identify the significant benefits and obstacles of implementing SMS. Results show that the top four benefits were safer working conditions, reduced harm to workers, regarding safety management as a part of project management, and better project management, while the top five obstacles were putting safety as a lower priority due to cultural differences in organizations, workers’ high turnover rates, tight project schedules, obstruction by sub-contractors, and inactive participation for the SMS implementation by the project team members. This study contributes to the current body of knowledge of safety research by examining the benefits of and obstacles to implementing SMS in the construction industry. The findings from this study are beneficial to the industry as well, because they can enhance the industry practitioners’ understanding on SMS and help them to improve the implementation of SMS in their workplaces.

Interpersonal Relationship to Tackle At-Risk Students: A Case Study in EFL Learning

This study investigated interpersonal relationship to tackle at-risk students’ low competence, inactive class participation, misbehave. This research especially aims at knowing how positive, supportive teacher-at risk student relationship can enhance the student’s learning outcome, how teacher-student relationship can enhance students’ motivation, can activate the at-risk students. This study is descriptive in nature held in a classroom context in sentence writing class in Stikubank University (UNISBANK) Semarang, Indonesia. The results of the study revealed how the at-risk student’s perception on teacher’s affective qualities can affect their learning outcome. It is concluded that the more positive the at-risk student’s perception on the teacher-student relationship, the higher the learning outcome she/ he achieves. The positive at-risk students’ perception on their teacher’s affective qualities makes them achieve the learning outcome successfully. This is because they feel that their teacher creates a safe and trustful environment that makes them feel free to share difficulties. Thus, supportive and caring teacher-at risk student relationship is essential in teaching-learning process.

Legal aspects of interaction of public organizations with local self-government bodies

The article deals with the basic legal acts defining the procedural aspects of the interaction of local self-government bodies with non-governmental organizations. Particular attention is paid to the coverage of international acts ratified by Ukraine and regulates the issues of such cooperation. The article highlights the dependence of the development of local self-government on the civil and political activity of the population. A detailed study of problems in the relationship of local self-government with citizens, associations of citizens, mass media and other civil society institutions has been formulated, proposals have been formulated to improve the solution of identified problems. As a result of the research, the author concluded that the main problem on the way of democratization of the national legislation of Ukraine is the inactive and ineffective participation of the public in the formation and implementation of state policy. The European Convention on Human Rights determines that the state must ensure the right of citizens to participate in the management of public affairs in order to establish a democratic and legal society, however, there are no mechanisms established by law for such participation. Investigation of the existing regulatory framework in Ukraine to ensure basic legal guarantees of citizens’ participation in the development and implementation of management decisions by local self-government bodies proves that not only these guarantees are not detailed, but also none of the existing normative acts establish clear procedures for ensuring the rights of citizens from the bodies of local self-government information regarding the issues discussed and regulated by these bodies, adopted regulatory acts, projects and mechanisms for the adoption of achymyh decisions for society. The article contains a number of concrete proposals for solving the problems of forming the basis of cooperation between local self-government bodies, the legal regulation of control and supervision activities in the field of local self-government, conflict resolution between local self-government bodies and civil society organizations, improvement of legal regulation of liability for non-compliance with legislation on civil cooperation society with local self-government bodies.

Awareness and use of massive open online courses among academic librarians in Ogun state, Nigeria

The dynamism of the current digital era requires academic librarians to be lifelong learners who can take advantage of available opportunities to improve their professional competence continuously. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are online learning platforms that provide training to learners at little or no costs. While it is documented that a lot of Africans participate in MOOCs, it is not certain whether academic librarians in Nigeria are aware of and take full advantage of MOOCs. The study surveyed awareness and use of MOOCs among academic librarians in Nigeria. A questionnaire was used for data collection. This was administered to 83 librarians from five randomly selected university libraries in Ogun state, Nigeria. Data were subjected to descriptive analysis. The findings revealed that more than half (61.4%) of the respondents were aware of MOOCs whereas, only (42.9%) enrolled for MOOCs. MIT Open Courseware (40%) was the most popular MOOC website among the librarians. Many (53.3%) of those that enrolled expressed inactive participation. Lack of time (50%) was a major barrier to MOOC participation among librarians. The paper recommended that university as well as library management need to formulate strategies and programs that will promote active participation in MOOC among librarians.Keywords: MOOCs, Academic Librarian, Awareness, Use

Correction: Factors determining the social participation of older adults: A comparison between Japan and Korea using EASS 2012.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0194703.].

Factors determining the social participation of older adults: A comparison between Japan and Korea using EASS 2012.

AimsJapan and Korea are the world’s most aged and most rapidly aging nations. They both have low fertility rates, thereby intensifying the importance of social structures to aid a large, dependent population of older adults. Common strategies involve improving their social participation, which enhances their physical and mental health, so they are supporting society rather than being supported. Since the social participation rates in both countries are not as high as those of Western countries, it is critical to shed light on the factors related to social participation of the elderly.MethodsA secondary analyses were performed using Japanese and Korean data from the 2012 East Asia Social Survey (EASS), which includes nationally representative samples through random sampling. The analyses only include data from those 65 and older (Japan: N = 683, Korea: N = 362).ResultsSocial participation is classified into four types: 1) no affiliation; 2) inactive participation; 3) active recreational; and 4) active social. The Japanese respondents had a higher participation rate than Koreans, but more Japanese were inactive. Though the rates of active participations were similar in both countries. Multinomial logistic regressions were conducted to examine the related factors among the four types of social participation. Basic attributes (e.g., living alone) and other factors (e.g., network size) were included as independent variables. The results show that larger non-family networks were linked with increased social participation in both societies. Men were more vulnerable to engaging in no social activities and at a higher risk of social isolation in both countries. One difference between the two nations is that among the Japanese, people with higher social orientations engage in more active social type participation.ConclusionThis study reveals that non-kin social networks are important for social participation in Japan and Korea.

What's in a name? Tensions between formal and informal communities of practice among regional subspecialty cancer surgeons.

In 2007 the Cancer Care Ontario Hepatobiliary-Pancreatic (HPB) Community of Practice was formed during the wake of provincial regionalization of HPB services in Ontario, Canada. Despite being conceptualized within the literature as an educational intervention, communities of practice (CoP) are increasingly being adopted in healthcare as quality improvement initiatives. A qualitative case study approach using in-depth interviews and document analysis was employed to gain insight into the perceptions and attitudes of the HPB surgeons in the CoP. This study demonstrates how an engineered formal or idealized structure of a CoP was created in tension with the natural CoPs that HPB surgeons identified with during and after their training. This tension contributed to the inactive and/or marginal participation by some of the surgeons in the CoP. The findings of this study represent a cautionary tale for such future engineering attempts in two distinct ways: (1) a CoP in surgery cannot simply be created by regulatory agencies, rather they need to be supported in a way to evolve naturally, and (2) when the concept of CoPs is co-opted by governing bodies, it does not necessarily capture the power and potential of situated learning. To ensure CoP sustainability and effectiveness, we suggest that both core and peripheral members need to be more directly involved at the inception of the COP in terms of design, organization, implementation and ongoing management.

Telemedicine for gastrointestinal endoscopy: The Endoscopic Club E-conference in the Asia Pacific Region.

Background and study aims An Endoscopic Club E-conference (ECE) was set up in May 2014 to cater to increased demand for gastrointestinal endoscopy-related teleconferences in the Asia-Pacific region which were traditionally organized by the medical working group (MWG) of Asia-Pacific Advanced Network. This study describes how the ECE meeting was run, examines the group dynamics, outlines feedback and analyzes factors affecting the enthusiasm of participants. It is hoped that the findings here can serve as guidance for future development of other teleconference groups. Methods The preparation, running of and feedback on the ECE teleconference were evaluated and described. The country’s economic situation, time zone differences, connectivity with a research and education network (REN) and engineering cooperation of each member were recorded and analyzed with regard to their association with participant enthusiasm, which was taken as participation in at least 50 % of the meetings since joining. Associations were calculated using 2-way table with chi-square test to generate odds ratio and P value. Results To date, ECE members have increased from 7 to 29 (increment of 314 %). Feedback received indicated a high level of satisfaction with program content, audiovisual transmission and ease of technical preparation. Upper gastrointestinal luminal endoscopy-related topics were the most favored program content. Those topics were presented mainly via case studies with a focus on management challenges. Time zone differences of more than 6 hours and poor engineering cooperation were independently associated with inactive participation (P values of 0.04 and 0.001 respectively). Conclusions Good program content and high-quality audiovisual transmission are keys to the success of an endoscopic medical teleconference. In our analysis, poor engineering cooperation and discordant time zones contributed to inactive participation while connectivity with REN and a country’s economic situation were not significantly associated with participant enthusiasm.

Association between adolescent sport activities and lumbar disk degeneration among young adults.

The relationship between different sport activities and lumbar intervertebral disk degeneration (DD) is largely unknown. We evaluated whether adolescent participation in different sports is associated with lumbar DD in a population-based birth cohort of young adults. A total of 558 young adults (325 females and 233 males) underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI, 1.5-T scanner). A DD sum score, based on the Pfirrmann grading, was calculated for all lumbar levels. The sum score was categorized into no DD, 1, 2, or at least 3. Participation in different sport activities was self-reported by postal surveys at 16, 18, and 19years, and three groups were formed based on participation frequency in 11 sports: (a) highly active (at least twice a week), (b) moderately active (2-4 times a month), and (c) inactive (maximum once a month). Cumulative odds ratios (COR) and their 95% confidence intervals (CI) were obtained for each sport by ordinal logistic regression, adjusting for gender, body mass index, age, socioeconomic status, smoking, and other sports. Highly active participation in jogging/running and swimming was associated with a higher DD sum score (COR: 3.0; 95% CI: 1.4-6.3 and 5.0; 1.7-15.2, respectively) compared to inactive participation, whereas highly active participation in skating showed low COR. In conclusion, running and swimming at least twice a week in early adulthood are potentially associated with lumbar DD. Follow-up studies with MRI are needed to show whether frequent exposure to running or swimming has further effect on the integrity of lumbar intervertebral disks.

Community Policing: Practice, Roles, Challenges and Prospects in Crime Prevention in East Gojjam Administrative Zone

Community policing is a paradigm shift established at the bedrock of community partnership in creating safe and secure environment for all. It is policing whereby the people take active part in their own affairs; the police are not seen as a problem or stranger whose presence stands for danger but as partners in development and those members of the community are co-producers of justice and quality police service. This fact indicates the need of involving the community, the local government and the police to work together to tackle crime. One rationale for public involvement is the belief that police alone can neither create nor maintain safe communities. Despite the establishment of community policing and numerous efforts by various police administrations to curtail the level of crime in Ethiopia, crime and social disorder still persist in the country. With growing urbanization and national development, there are signs of complexity and multiplicity of criminal offenses and acts. The general objective of the study is to assess the contributions, challenges and prospects of community policing in crime prevention in selected sites of East Gojjam zone, North West Ethiopia. Mixed research method which combines both qualitative and quantitative methods was employed in this study. Quantitatively, the study generally assesses the role, predicament and prospects of community policing. Qualitatively, it probes deep and investigates the views and opinions of both the members of the society and police officers on the program as a whole, its level of implementation and satisfaction it has brought and the level of program ownership among police officers and the community at large. A society less concern and inactive participation is the major challenge of community policing. Limited human resource for coordinating community policing activities, de motivated police officers, less attention given from government to the programme and turnover of police officers is also another challenge for community policing.

Disaster legislation: a critical review of the Civil Protection Act of Zimbabwe

Human suffering has increased in recent years as a result of increased frequency and intensity of disasters. The disaster impacts are expected to rise in the coming years due to increased vulnerability to natural hazards. Admittedly, human risk to natural hazards cannot be eliminated completely, but it can be reduced through systematic disaster risk reduction (DRR) approaches that can be scientifically applied for minimising vulnerability and building resilience in nations through multi-sectoral and multi-dimensional measures. Using the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005–2015 Priority 1, this paper analysed the current disaster legislation in Zimbabwe: the Civil Protection Act of 1989 (Chapter 10:06) to identify its strengths and limitations in building community resilience to disasters. A textual analysis approach was employed together with key informant interviews with senior public officials on all levels of government, non-governmental organisations and the academia engaged in DRR. The study found out that the Act falls short of building national and community resilience to disasters. Some of the key weaknesses of the Act include: inactive community participation in DRR, unavailability of dedicated and adequate resources to implement DRR programmes, centralisation of power and resources, and the focus on ‘natural’ hazards rather than on vulnerability and resilience. As such, there is need for its revision to align it with international best practices in disaster legislations.

Salsa dance and Zumba fitness: Acute responses during community-based classes

BackgroundResearch interest in both partnered Latin dance and non-partnered Latin-themed aerobic dance has increased in recent years, likely a result of the gaining popularity of these types of instructor-led group classes among the mainstream dance and fitness audiences; however, the efficacy of these activities for the purposes of health promotion currently remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to simultaneously assess the physiological responses and psychological experiences during salsa dance and Zumba fitness in a community sample of physically inactive women. MethodsTwenty-four participants, aged 22–56 years, visited the laboratory to perform a graded exercise test for determination of maximal oxygen uptake and maximal heart rate. The participants then attended 2 partnered salsa dance and 2 non-partnered Zumba fitness classes each in a counterbalanced order over a 2-week period. The 1-h classes were taught by certified instructors in established venues in the Royal Borough of Kingston and the surrounding communities of London, UK. Physiological data were collected using a wrist-worn ActiGraph wGT3X+ accelerometer with accompanying heart rate monitor and were processed using previously validated dance-specific techniques. Psychological experiences were measured via the Subjective Exercise Experiences Scale. ResultsThere was a significantly higher (p < 0.001) total time spent in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (51.2 ± 3.1 vs. 32.6 ± 5.9 min), total energy expenditure (411 ± 66 vs. 210 ± 46 kcal), and total step count (6773 ± 556 vs. 4108 ± 781 steps) during Zumba fitness when compared to salsa dance. Significant pre- to post-class improvements in positive well-being (p < 0.01, partial η2 = 0.41) and psychological distress (p < 0.001, partial η2 = 0.72) were simultaneously observed for both salsa dance and Zumba fitness. ConclusionThe acute responses to classes of partnered Latin dance and non-partnered Latin-themed aerobic dance suggest that in physically inactive women participation is indeed efficacious in terms of community-based physical activity and psychosocial health promotion.

Salsa Dance and Zumba Fitness

Abstract Background Research interest in both partnered Latin dance and non-partnered Latin-themed aerobic dance has increased in recent years, likely a result of the gaining popularity of these types of instructor-led group classes among the mainstream dance and fitness audiences; however, the efficacy of these activities for the purposes of health promotion currently remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to simultaneously assess the physiological responses and psychological experiences during salsa dance and Zumba fitness in a community sample of physically inactive women. Methods Twenty-four participants, aged 22–56 years, visited the laboratory to perform a graded exercise test for determination of maximal oxygen uptake and maximal heart rate. The participants then attended 2 partnered salsa dance and 2 non-partnered Zumba fitness classes each in a counterbalanced order over a 2-week period. The 1-h classes were taught by certified instructors in established venues in the Royal Borough of Kingston and the surrounding communities of London, UK. Physiological data were collected using a wrist-worn ActiGraph wGT3X+ accelerometer with accompanying heart rate monitor and were processed using previously validated dance-specific techniques. Psychological experiences were measured via the Subjective Exercise Experiences Scale. Results There was a significantly higher ( p vs. 32.6 ± 5.9 min), total energy expenditure (411 ± 66 vs. 210 ± 46 kcal), and total step count (6773 ± 556 vs. 4108 ± 781 steps) during Zumba fitness when compared to salsa dance. Significant pre- to post-class improvements in positive well-being ( p η 2 = 0.41) and psychological distress ( p η 2 = 0.72) were simultaneously observed for both salsa dance and Zumba fitness. Conclusion The acute responses to classes of partnered Latin dance and non-partnered Latin-themed aerobic dance suggest that in physically inactive women participation is indeed efficacious in terms of community-based physical activity and psychosocial health promotion.

Integrated Sensing Techniques for Assistive Chairs

This paper presents a survey of the contemporary assistive chairs and on-chair sensing approaches of capturing sit-to-stand (STS) movement. Sitting in a chair and standing up from a seated position are activities of daily living (ADLs) performed by humans. However, older people often encounter difficulties with these activities. These difficulties may cause substantial decreasing of the elderly mobility, leading to inactive participation in social activities and increasing the risk of chronic diseases that may cause premature death. Therefore, assisting older people to overcome these difficulties has significance for their independent living. At present, the assistive devices can be allocated in terms of market available ones and experimental prototypes, both of which are discussed here. Afterwards, the authors cast more light on integrated sensing techniques that are currently used with experimental prototypes and create a taxonomy of sensing techniques. Following from this survey, a chair capable of delivering assistance-as-needed is proposed.

A Comparative Study with Swedish and China’s Eco-Cities - From Planning to Implementation, Taking the Hammarby Sjöstad, Sweden and Wuxi Sino-Swedish Eco-City, China, as Cases

This paper targets to improve understanding and explain influential factors of different planning and implementing process of two eco-cities, Hammarby Sjöstad, Sweden, and Sino-Swedish Low-carbon Eco-city, China. The study is approached by examining and comparing the two eco-cities in perspectives of plans formulation, policy and regulations foundation, planning management and implementing mechanisms. Lessons from Hammarby Sjöstad are that integrative planning and management, follow-up and evaluations of implementing results, and lifestyle transitions all need to be concerned, as well as environmental technologies. In Sino-Swedish low-carbon eco-city, lack of local technologies, supporting policies and regulations, inactive cross-sector cooperation and public participation are summarized as main obstacles. To approach these, efforts are made on formulating local regulations, government documents, and coordinating cross-sector cooperation, promoting mutual learning. Finally, concluding that, besides environmental technologies, the foundation of legislations, policies and environmental objectives, integrative approaches, public awareness are key areas need to be promoted for popularizing sustainability in China.

Distribution of rare-earth (Y, La, Ce) and other heavy metals in the profiles of the podzolic soil group

Along with Fe and Al, many heavy metals (Mn, Cr, Zn, Cu, and Ni) show a markedly pronounced eluvial-illuvial redistribution in the profiles of soils of the podzolic group. The intensity of the redistribution of the bulk forms of these metals is comparable with that of Fe and exceeds that of Al. Although the podzolic soils are depleted of rare-earth metals, the latter respond readily to soil podzolization. The inactive participation of Al is explained by an insignificant portion of the active reaction-capable fraction. Podzolization does not influence the profile distribution of Sr and Ba. The leaching degree of heavy metals such as Mn, Cr, Zn, Ni, and Zr is noticeably higher in the sandy podzols than in the loamy podzolic soils. Leaching of heavy metals from the podzolic horizons is of geochemical importance, whereas the depletion of metals participating in plant nutrition and biota development is of ecological importance. The leaching of heavy metals is related to the destruction of clay particles in the heavy-textured podzolic soils; the effect of the soil acidity on the leaching of heavy metals is less significant.

Performance of smallholder dairy farmers' groups in the east and west central regions of Bhutan: Members' perspective

Collective action through farmers’ groups is increasingly being recognized as a positive force for rural development in Bhutan. The present study describes an assessment of the performance of smallholder dairy farmers’ groups (N=7) in the west and east central regions of Bhutan. The data were collected from 176 respondents through a structured questionnaire survey supplemented by open participatory group discussions. Six functional tasks associated with the dairy groups’ performance were identified and evaluated; i) production support ii) marketing support iii) processing efficiency iv) members’ representation v) records and accounting and vi) group management, using a Likert-type rating scale. The limited group capacity, poor sense of ownership and inactive participation by the members, heavy dependence on government support, dispersed location and complacent members’ attitude were found affecting performance of dairy groups. Key words: Collective action, functional tasks, performance and members’ perceptions.

A flexible spatially dependent discrete choice model: Formulation and application to teenagers’ weekday recreational activity participation

This study proposes a simple and practical Composite Marginal Likelihood (CML) inference approach to estimate ordered-response discrete choice models with flexible copula-based spatial dependence structures across observational units. The approach is applicable to data sets of any size, provides standard error estimates for all parameters, and does not require any simulation machinery. The combined copula–CML approach proposed here should be appealing for general multivariate modeling contexts because it is simple and flexible, and is easy to implement The ability of the CML approach to recover the parameters of a spatially ordered process is evaluated using a simulation study, which clearly points to the effectiveness of the approach. In addition, the combined copula–CML approach is applied to study the daily episode frequency of teenagers’ physically active and physically inactive recreational activity participation, a subject of considerable interest in the transportation, sociology, and adolescence development fields. The data for the analysis are drawn from the 2000 San Francisco Bay Area Survey. The results highlight the value of the copula approach that separates the univariate marginal distribution form from the multivariate dependence structure, as well as underscore the need to consider spatial effects in recreational activity participation. The variable effects indicate that parents’ physical activity participation constitutes the most important factor influencing teenagers’ physical activity participation levels. Thus, an effective way to increase active recreation among teenagers may be to direct physical activity benefit-related information and education campaigns toward parents, perhaps at special physical education sessions at the schools of teenagers.

Taiwanese University students' perceived freedom and participation in leisure

Evidence suggests leisure presents an important context for wellness and development for students. Also optimal effects of leisure participation are closely associated with an individual's perceived freedom in manipulating or controlling discretionary free time. This study examined Taiwanese university students’ leisure behaviours and their capacity in managing leisure. Relationships among the cognitive components of control and competence, perceived freedom in leisure (PFL ), and chosen leisure activities, were tested. To validate these structural relationships, a hypothesised model was developed based on the theoretical framework of the Leisure Diagnostic Battery (LD B), postulating control and competence as antecedents of PFL and leisure participation. Data acquired from a self‐administered questionnaire survey of 1,019 samples were processed using LISREL analysis. Results reveal students’ pursuit of leisure activities is predominately static and domestic, which in turn, limits opportunities for socialisation. Positive and significant associations were found between students’ PFL and leisure participation (γ = 0.39). An asymmetric relationship between a moderate level of PFL and inactive participation was also observed. Implications of students’ leisure functioning and sedentary leisure behaviours are discussed.